Moulton College drops from ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’ after Ofsted inspection

Callum Jones

Moulton College has fallen from an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating to ‘requires improvement’ after its latest inspection.

A report published following a visit by the Government’s education watchdog in April states students’ attendance and punctuality is not high enough and teachers do not have sufficiently high expectations of what they can achieve.

Leaders and managers at the college have also been criticised for being slow to improve management weaknesses in English, mathematics and apprenticeships.

Moulton College, which offers a range of degree and apprenticeship courses, was rated ‘outstanding’ after a visit by Ofsted inspectors eight years ago. More than 5,000 students were taught at the college’s 500 hectare site in the village of Moulton last year.

The report states: “Self-assessment is not sufficiently wide-ranging and comprehensive and managers do not use data well enough to evaluate the effectiveness of their provision.

“Teachers do not plan and teach lessons that take into account students’ and apprentices’ starting points and potential. Theory lessons do not enable students and apprentices to make rapid and sufficient progress with their learning and fulfil their potential.”

The inspectors noted that in a minority of lessons, students’ poor behaviour causes disruption to their learning and teachers are not all sufficiently skilled in managing poor behaviour.

The college was praised for establishing strong links with local and regional employers and using them well to plan and enhance the curriculum offer to students.

Inspectors also noted the high quality practical and commercial facilities that enable students to learn relevant practical skills and skills for work effectively.

Moulton College Principal Stephen Davies said there was work to do to improve standards at the college.

He said: “Our teaching, learning and assessment are not yet consistently good across the college particularly in maths and English theory classes, and we are addressing that inconsistency by building upon the good practice that already exists within the college.

“English and mathematics provision and success rates are an education sector-wide challenge particularly in Northamptonshire, but we recognise that we can be and must be part of the solution for our local community and that our English and maths success rates need to improve from last year. The College acknowledges this priority and improvement initiatives are already well underway but these have not, as yet, had sufficient impact.”